Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to a method and device for automatically processing payment instructions.
Description of the Related Art
The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in the background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.
An electronic payment instruction is information issued by a sender in an electronic payment system to instruct the withdrawal of funds in a first bank account and a corresponding deposit of funds in a second bank account. The net result is a transfer of funds (or payment transaction) from the first bank account to the second bank account. Because the first and second bank accounts may exist with different financial institutions, the payment instruction is initially stored and processed centrally. The result of the central processing is that the payment instruction is converted into one or more further instructions which are then sent to one or more financial institutions in order to complete the payment transaction.
It is very important that all payment transactions which have been instructed are carried out correctly. In other words, it is very important that all the payment transactions which have been instructed by the sender are carried out and that each transaction is carried out only once. This ensures that there is no discrepancy between payment transactions which have been instructed and the actual transactions which take place. One way to ensure this is to check with the sender of the payment instruction that the transaction has taken place successfully. However, there are often very large numbers of payment instruction senders, thus making it impractical to check this with each sender individually. An aim of embodiments of the present invention is therefore to provide a faster, more efficient way of ensuring that payment transactions which have been instructed electronically are carried out correctly.